PROTESTERS attempted today to block the transportation of weapons and equipment to the world’s largest arms fair, due to be held at London’s Excel centre next week. 

Activists from a coalition of protest groups blocked two entrances to the massive venue in London’s Docklands using lock-ons and parked vehicles. 

The action came on the second day of protests against the government-backed Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) event, which attracts 1,600 arms dealers and prospective buyers from some of the world’s most repressive regimes. 

The biennial event is due to take place on September 14, but equipment has already started arriving to be showcased at Excel.

On Monday, an attack helicopter was seen being moved into the venue. 

Extinction Rebellion (XR) is among the groups taking direct action in a bid to stop equipment reaching the centre.

Amelia Halls of XR said: “War is ecocide. Nothing is as devastating to human lives or to the rest of the living world than violent armed conflict.”

Stop the Arms Fair said that the actions were taken in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan.

Speakers from that country also addressed protesters outside Excel to condemn the role of British arms in the conflict. 

Since 2008, the government has issued licences for arms sales to Afghanistan worth £151 million, along with 86 unlimited-value “open licences,” according to Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).

The group said that such licences have fuelled massive corruption in Afghanistan and warned that British weapons now risk falling into the hands of the Taliban. 

“Like the invasion itself, the government’s short-sighted approach to arms-export licensing will leave a brutal scar on the lives of Afghan civilians, women and children in particular, for decades to come,” CAAT said in a statement.